To think lockdown has been a huge headlouse eradication opportunity and we will soon see who hasn't treated their kids

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

We've all had it. You keep bloody combing out the bloody lice and they just keep catching them again at school. Every one blames everyone else.

But if we've maintained proper social distance and continued to treat through lockdown, the critters should have taken a serious hit. Anyone who has been in lockdown and still has them now - Please realise you were the problem and you need to learn to treat properly.

AIBU

I was thinking this the other day. If schools checked every child who was returning, we have a chance to get rid of them for good.

Doubt it. Some people have been a bit busy homeschooling whilst also working from home full time.

TooGood2BeTrue

Yep. Both my sisters are in this boat. It hasn't stopped them combing their school age kids twice a week to be safe. Personal hygiene doesn't disappear because you are busy.

Daisyhut
Its exactly this.

I'd love a rule where you can't send them back unless nit free. If you can't sort them with 9 weeks off school you need to be made to sort them!

I was thinking exactly this the other day.

Unfortunately I don't think the parents of the repeat offenders will be any more bothered than usual and the little fuckers will still keep going.

Mean post, there’s going to be enough pointing and mean bullying about other kids “having the corona” etc in the playgrounds when kids return to the new normal without also ostracising others about nits! You don’t know what kind of lockdown other people have been living through. A friend of mine had ended up having a very messy separation in the middle of all this, I doubt nits would be top if her agenda.
I’m actually dreading the personal hygiene type bullying that will come from all this covid stuff, some poor kids are going to end up with a tough time of it 😕

Mine have never had nits! Are we all supposed to treat them!!

Hopefully this is the end also of
Impetigo which plagued us last autumn.... put school does PE 3/5 days so constant changing and sweaty changing rooms.../🤮

Ugh, after 9 weeks, the kids with lice will be absolutely hopping. The thing is, I can understand missing headlice when there are only one or two there but I can't understand missing them when they have loads.

I have treated my kids three times over the lockdown period .. with four of them they seem to pass them between one another 😩

Too busy wfh to de nit your DC?

Jeez that's awful.

We used Hedrin when mine had it years ago. With combing alone isn't there a risk you'd always miss a couple and never fully get rid of it even if you thought you had?

I have an itchy head anyway, so I didn't think anything of it when I had an itchy head until a letter came from saying there were nits going round. And then the penny dropped that my son had them! He had them twice as a small child, I found them much faster the second time though!

But not everyone gets an itchy head do they? You really do need to check every so often. I was going to say it's not that difficult when they are small and you wash their hair anyway but I had my highlights done when I got them from my son and and the hairdresser didn't notice! I know they must have been there when the highlights were done because their sac was coloured! So they can be difficult to spot in the early days.

Mine have never had nits! Are we all supposed to treat them!!

Neither have mine. I've never had them myself - maybe the family blood doesn't taste nice to them?

Doubt it. Some people have been a bit busy homeschooling whilst also working from home full time

Oh FFS, I'm WFH with 4 and it's been a nightmare but I still had time to treat headlice in 3 of mine, it's absolutely more of a priority than one day of homeschooling. For some.chaotic families with multiple issues or severe SEN I get it, but this is very basic, on the level of failing to ensure your children have clean clothes.

Totally agree with you op.

Nits are bomb proof bastards. This won't stop them. I hate it when people victim-blame the people who gave them the nits. Patient zero was probably hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Exactly ThePlantsitter. It's ridiculous to suggest children are neglected because they have nits...

Honestly I think nits could survive a nuclear bomb somehow, they’d find a way. My 2 haven’t had them yet, I guess it’s a matter of time though 😬 every time I check I’m worried I’ll find them but so far so good.
I remember at school sitting in assembly, age 8 or 9, and the girl in front of me, bless her, had so many lice in her hair. I was very close obviously and I could see them running about in her hair. Dozens and dozens of the little fuckers in her hair. I remember I went and told a teacher about it, I’m not sure what they did. Poor kid, it must have been so uncomfortable.
Can anyone recommend a nit comb? I have one of those white plastic ones but I’m not sure they’re actually any good?

maybe the family blood doesn't taste nice to them?

I think there is some truth in this, actually. I have never had them, and have always worked with small children.

I'm not being smug, either, I HAVE had threadworms - they are easier to get rid of, though!

I haven't treated my DDs during lockdown as they haven't had nits for years. I think DD2 last got them in Y2 or Y3 and she's in Y6 now. I would think nits are far less likely anyway with only a few kids going to school, and social distancing enforced. It seems bizarre to worry about nits at a time like this.

Have been very good at keeping up flea treatment for the pets though. The last thing I'd want while stuck at home is a bloody flea infestation. A lot more difficult to get rid of than a few headlice.

The usual offenders will be spraying lovely, gentle, natural scented bollocks on the kids hair and professing that their kids don't have lice.

We all know who they are and their kids will spread lice the 2nd they return. why do the boys in these families always have longer hair for maximum spreadability?!

You need a Nitty Gritty comb, Dum. The plastic ones don't cut it.

I must admit to slightly enjoying combing out actual lice with a Nitty Gritty. Revoltingly fascinating.

My ds actually has his first louse at the beginning of lockdown. He’s 5!

Never had headlice before. We think he caught it from next doors child as he had his head against the fence and so did she.

That day, I sat down and nitty gritted both kids hair. Both are clean.

Touch wood, they stay that way as dd is 7 and neither of them have ever had headline

@ComDummings The Nitty Gritty comb is your friend. It's good to get in the habit of putting a load of extra conditioner in your child's hair from time to time and giving it a going over with the comb.

Op, I have thought this too. At once stage DD2 had nits three times at nursery. When I told the nursery head that treatment needs to be on at least two occasions, seven days apart plus loads of combing, she looked surprised.

Lots of people don't know how to treat them and not remedies called Once don't help

Where I grew up (not the UK) you would get sent home if the school nurse found nits or lice. Do they just let children stay for the rest of the day here? Surely it's so itchy and uncomfortable

You can't just use the nitty gritty once. If you left just one tiny egg on the hair, they're coming back. That's why I think it's ridiculous to assume kids with nits have lazy/negligent parents. Life share finds a way, nit life anyway.